Gizmodo: Warning

Cellphone Use While Pregnant Causes Kids To Go Haywire, Study Says

Elaine Chow — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:30:00 EDT

Pregnant women should probably add cellphones to the list of things they need to avoid, along with alcohol, sushi and cat poo. A giant study that surveyed over 13,000 children found that women who used mobile phones when pregnant were more likely to give birth to kids with behavioral problems.

The study, conducted by UCLA and Aarhus University in Denmark, found that using cell phones just two or three times a day would raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and emotional disorders by the time they enter Kindergarten.

The scientists responsible for the study say that the results were "unexpected," and that they haven't discovered what biological mechanisms causes the problems. But the results stayed the same even when they accounted for other possible causes—such as smoking, family psychiatric history or socio-economic status.

But before everyone freaks out and buys a MummyWrap, the scientists stress that the results "should be interpreted with caution" and affirmed by other studies. In the meantime, maybe tell Mommy-to-be to limit her cellphone use a little bit, just in case. [The Independent via Textually]

iSteamy Converts iPhone into Handheld Porn Powerhouse (Extremely NSFW)

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:25:46 EST

Here's our Extremely Not Safe For Work video review of iSteamy, a software program designed to easily browse porn on your iPhone, complete with category-based picture, video and audio navigation and a "steamy room" to store all your favorites in its internal memory. This is the first version, so it has some bugs and not enough content. However, it looks promising enough to guarantee a good try. And maybe make some people change their iPhone recommendation.

(WARNING: Before you click on the video, be warned. After a long time of warnings, this video review will inevitably show nudity and oral sex.)

iSteamy's installation is very easy. You only have to point Installer.app to their source repository (at http://repo.codegenocide.com). After refreshing your sources in Installer, you will see the option appear in the menu under the Adult category, like the video review shows.

The application itself is very simple. It's well structured into four sections, Pictures, Video, Audio and Steamy Room, which is like your pornoteque and uses your internal memory to store your favorites for later use. You will have to register to have access to save to your the Steamy Room.

It uses the same conventions and software components as the iPhone. The scrolling, video and zooming work exactly the same (although the latter is buggy at this point). It even has a five-star rating system, like iPod songs.

Is iSteamy worth the price of admission? It's a good first effort and, if you and your hand maintain a close, intimate relationship, it's probably worth it. For the rest of pervs out there, the free mode is fun enough to guarantee a try. [iSteamy]

(WARNING: Before you click on the video, be warned. After a long time of warnings, this video review will inevitably show nudity and oral sex.)

Two Possible Mac Data Loss Issues Still Unadressed by Apple

Sean Fallon — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:20:29 EST

Although no official word has been released by Apple, there appears to be two serious data loss issues that could affect MacBook owners and users of Mac OS X Leopard. According to blogger Tom Karpik, Leopard's Finder has a bug in its directory-moving code that can result in massive data loss when transferring large files—regardless of the type of destination drive. Apparently, this flaw has been around since the days of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, so it could represent an ongoing problem that Apple has failed to address.

The other issue involves a flaw in certain 2.5-inch Segate SATA drives with a firmware version 7.01. As mentioned last week on Giz, the flaw causes read/write heads to fail and scratch up the drive. Again, these issues are not official, but you may want to take steps to back up your data just to be on the safe side. [TomKarpik via AppleInsider]

Seagate 2.5-inch Hard Drive Flaw Affecting MacBooks?

Jason Chen — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:40:00 EDT

Retrodata, a data-recovery company, has just issued a warning for Apple MacBook owners with Seagate hard drives that were manufactured in China and have a firmware version of 7.01. Apparently these have a fatal flow that cause their read/write heads to fail mechanically, scratching up the hard drive surface as pictured and making data unrecoverable (even by professionals such as themselves). If you've got a MacBook, you should check to see if your internal drive is a Seagate and back up your data accordingly. There's no official word yet from Apple on whether or not this actually a problem, but better safe than crying over lost nudie photos. [Retrodata - Thanks Eric!]

Warning: You Can't Have Sex With The iPhone

LISA KATAYAMA — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:26:25 EDT

I've been hanging out on the couch playing with this online label maker for my site, so I decided to make one for Giz readers, too. This is a friendly reminder that no matter how important you think gadgets are, they'll never be able to 1-up humans.

–Lisa Katayama

Make your own warning label [via TokyoMango]

Mobileye AWS: Color-Coded Nagging on Your Dashboard

Charlie White — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 10:42:09 EDT

As we move ever closer to the driverless car, Mobileye takes a step backward with its automatic warning system (AWS), a color-coded indicator that mounts on your dashboard. Its eye is actually a small video camera mounted to the rear view mirror, and its image processor, called the EyeQ, calculates the distance between your car and the one in front of you, giving you an audible and visual warning if you get too close. It also lets you know if you drift out of your lane, but is deactivated if you turn on the car's turn signal.

Come to think of it, you could just avoid spending the $1800 for this unit and judge the distance between you and that car in front of you with your own two eyes. If that's not enough, get married and you'll have an auto-nagging device sitting right next to you. – Charlie White

Product page [Mobileye N.V., via Sci Fi Tech]